“The life sciences and healthcare industries are converging as they seek to control costs while accelerating patient-centered innovation,” said Neil de Crescenzo, senior vice president and general manager of Oracle Health Sciences. “Phase Forward brings outstanding products and employees with significant expertise to Oracle that will help enable the delivery of personalized medicine and value-based healthcare.”

The deal is subject to stockholder and regulatory approval but is expected to close sometime in mid-2010.

“Deployed in over 10,000 clinical trials, Phase Forward’s software has been used successfully by hundreds of customers to accelerate innovation in drug development and patient care delivery,” added Bob Weiler, chairman, president and CEO of Phase Forward. “We look forward to combining our complementary wealth of experience with Oracle Health Sciences.”

Market observers were bullish on the acquisition Friday. “We believe this deal makes a lot of sense, as Oracle is a major player in the electronic data capture business, and combining the two companies should be a win/win,” wrote Piper Jaffray analysts in a report.